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Jail expansion bids total $2.6 million so far

SCOTT LILES, Baxter Bulletin
Published 9:59 p.m. CT July 20, 2018

Women inmates hang out in a cell block at the Baxter County jail in this file photograph. Baxter County recently accepted 13 bids for construction of a 50-bed expansion to the jail, with six more jail-expansion contracts to be re-bid in August.(Photo11: File photo)

The price tag for building the Baxter County Detention Facility’s 50-bed jail expansion presently sits at $2.6 million after the county accepted 13 construction bids Thursday.

The expansion’s current construction price merely represents a running total. The county also rejected bids Thursday on three jail construction projects and it did not receive bids on three more.

The six unawarded expansion contracts will be re-bid and are due at the Baxter County courthouse by 3 p.m. on Aug. 15.

Construction on the jail’s planned expansion is split into 19 contracts, each one covering specific duties like site clearing, plumbing or painting.

Masonry IV Inc. of Dardanelle was awarded Thursday’s largest contract, being hired to provide the expansion’s masonry work for $498,000. Masonry IV was one of two bidders for that contract; another company had submitted a bid of $585,000.

Three bids ranging from $107,000 to $53,000 to build the expansion’s pier foundation were all rejected by the county, as was a bid of $159,000 to build the roof.

The county also rejected two bids — one for $38,000 and another for $15,000 — to build the expansion’s fencing and gates. That construction will be handed instead by the Baxter County Sheriff’s office, the court order accepting and rejecting the bids stated.

Construction projects not receiving bids after they were initially advertised included items like caulking and sealing the expanded facility or constructing an aluminum canopy.

Baxter county voters in September 2017 approved a temporary one-percent county sales tax to fund the construction of a 50-bed addition to the county’s 100-bed jail. Voters at that time also approved a permanent quarter-percent county sales tax to help fund the operation of the expanded detention facility, with that sales tax going into effect once the one-percent sales tax had expired.

The county’s one-percent jail expansion sales tax went into effect April 1 and will continue through Sept. 30, when it will expire. Then, on Jan. 1, 2019, the quarter-percent jail maintenance sales tax will go into effect.

Using last year’s monthly sales tax numbers as an estimate, the one-percent sales tax would raise about $3.4 million in revenue for the jail expansion. The quarter-percent sales tax is estimated to generate about $133,000 per month, and could be used to help cover the costs of the jail expansion if needed.

The county collected $540,000 in revenue for the jail expansion in April. Sales tax reports are reported two months after they are collected, leaving April’s numbers as the only monthly figure to be reported so far.